Nowadays, consumer electronic products have experienced great growth and are now rapidly gaining in popularity. Especially, notebook computers have become dispensable electronic products of the office workers.
The notebook computer comprises a keyboard with plural key structures. Generally, a key structure of the keyboard of the notebook computer mainly comprises a scissors-type connecting member, an elastic element, and a keycap. The elastic element is disposed within the scissors-type connecting member. The keycap is disposed over the scissors-type connecting member and the elastic element. After the plural key structures are fixed on a base plate, the keyboard is assembled. In the conventional keyboard, plural recesses or plural hooks for installing the scissors-type connecting member are directly formed on the base plate by an impact molding process. After the scissors-type connecting member is engaged with the recesses or the hooks of the base plate, the scissors-type connecting member is installed on the base plate.
However, the conventional keyboard still has some drawbacks. For example, as previously described, the recesses or the hooks to be engaged with the scissors-type connecting member are directly formed on the base plate by the impact molding process. As known, the impact molding process is complicated and costly. In addition, the way of installing the scissors-type connecting member is not user-friendly. Moreover, if the hooks are damaged, the base plate fails to be effectively used, which may result in waste of resources.
For solving the above drawbacks, another keyboard is disclosed. FIG. 1 is a schematic exploded view illustrating a conventional keyboard. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional keyboard 1 comprises a base plate 10, a flexible circuit board 11, a scissors-type connecting member 12, a keycap 13, and an intermediate plate 14. The intermediate plate 14 comprises at least one first engaging recess 15 and at least one second engaging recess 17. The first engaging recess 15 is arranged between two first protrusion blocks 16. The second engaging recess 17 is disposed under a second protrusion block 18.
For assembling the conventional keyboard 1, the flexible circuit board 11 is firstly fixed on a top surface of the intermediate plate 14, so that the intermediate plate 14 is fixed on the base plate 10. Then, plural scissors-type connecting members 12 are fixed on the intermediate plate 14 and sequentially connected with plural keycaps 13, respectively.
Moreover, the scissors-type connecting member 12 comprises an inner frame 121 and an outer frame 123. A position-limiting post 122 at a lower part of the inner frame 121 is accommodated within the second engaging recess 17. A position-limiting post 124 at a lower part of the outer frame 123 is accommodated within the first engaging recess 15. A position-limiting post 125 at an upper part of the inner frame 121 and a position-limiting post 126 at an upper part of the outer frame 123 are connected with the keycap 13 over the intermediate plate 14. Consequently, the scissors-type connecting member 12 is fixed between the keycap 13 and the intermediate plate 14.
Although the key structure of the conventional keyboard 1 as shown in FIG. 1 can be installed more conveniently, there are still some drawbacks. For example, after the key structure is installed and fixed, it is difficult to detach the scissors-type connecting member 12 from the intermediate plate 14. In other words, the way of replacing the key structure is very difficult.
Moreover, the intermediate plate 14 of the conventional keyboard 1 is not dependent on the number of the keycaps 13. That is, the size of the intermediate plate 14 does not match the size of the keycap 13. On the other words, the intermediate plate 14 is a one-piece structure matching the size of the base plate 10. In a case that any protrusion block of the one-piece intermediate plate 14 is damaged, the whole intermediate plate 14 fails to be continuously utilized, which may result in waste of resources. In addition, the quality of the key structure of the conventional keyboard 1 is still unsatisfied.
Therefore, there is a need of providing an improved key structure of a keyboard in order to eliminate the above drawbacks.